Literature Review Women on boards and in TMTS and firm performance16 mically beneficial Furthermore only few boundary conditions could be identified as critical for suc cess The survey conducted by Boerner Keding and Hüttermann 2012 considers 18 studies including five literature reviews and one meta analysis The authors state that mixed leadership and the targe ted promotion of gender diversity in management positions do not per se lead to economic benefits Empirical evidence points towards certain boundary conditions under which women in leadership may contribute positively to the company s success These include individual qualification and experi ence the relevance of the specific resources that women bring in for the particular firm and if the company s environment allows female executives to develop their full potential Both publications are available in German language only The most recent surveys review literature publis hed up and including 2012 Since several studies have emerged in the meantime an update seems to be required I aim at filling this gap with my li terature review Moreover the fact that two of the most recent studies are available in German lan guage only means a limitation with regard to the size of the audience Boerner et al 2012 Kroell et al 2014 The present survey is drafted in Eng lish language and thus accessible for international recipients In order to answer my research question I con duct an analysis of existent empirical studies pu blished between 1996 and 2014 In early 2015 the German government decided on a gender quota for the supervisory boards of large German listed firms I seek to comprehend which conclu sions regarding the relationship between gender diversity in upper echelons and firm performance could be drawn on the basis of published empirical evidence at that time For this purpose I identify relevant publications through searches in academic databases Web of Science EBSCO I focus prima rily on literature in English language as the vast majority of papers is published in English I use the following keywords linked by Boolean Opera tors AND OR board diversity board gender diversity Women on boards gender diversity female representation boards of directors top management performance firm perfor mance firm value firm valuation Further more I search the reference lists of the identified studies for further relevant papers according to the snowball principle I identify 44 relevant publications on the link be tween gender diversity on corporate boards and in TMTs and firm performance or shareholder wealth Ten studies that emerged since 2012 are not inclu ded in the most recent publications of Kroell et al 2014 and Mohan 2014 I primarily consider pa pers from academic journals in particular finance and management journals For the core of my stu dy I focus on papers that examine the relation be tween one or more gender diversity measures as independent variable s and one or more financial performance measures as dependent variable s However I additionally provide a detailed intro duction into diversity in the context of business as well as an overview of the variety of nonfinancial effects of gender diversity in upper echelons I contribute to the literature by providing a struc tured overview of the relevant research including comparisons between theoretical models research designs and empirical results Furthermore I tra ce the change of perception of the link between gender diversity and measures of performance and shareholder wealth over time Finally I make sug gestions for future research The paper proceeds as follows Section 2 2 recaps the theories of diversity in the context of busi ness This section also sets out the various effects Women on boards and in TMTs and firm performance